The Hawks continued a disturbing trend of taking games to OT and not being able to collect the extra point as they fell to the Calgary Flames in overtime to kick off a 6-game road trip. Both starting goalies were pulled as the points racked up, but the Flames would ultimately emerge victorious as the Hawks dropped their fourth game in a row.

The Flames would get on the board early with a backhand goal by Mikael Backlund just 1:43 into the first period, but the Hawks would answer less than five minutes later as Patrick Kane scored his 25th goal of the season to tie the game at 1.

Calgary would take the lead again with a goal by Lance Bouma at 11:34 of the first, after his shot took a crazy hop over Raanta and into the net to give the Flames a 2-1 advantage.

Marian Hossa would tie the game back up again just a few minutes later, as Jonathan Toews had an incredible individual effort to set up the tying goal that would keep the game even at 16:35 of the first.

The second period would prove to be just as wild as the first, as Calgary scored 2 goals in the first half of the second to seemingly put the game out of reach. Matt Stajan finished off a deke on Raanta on a 3-on-1 to score the Flame’s third goal at 3:21 of the first, and Backlundwould score a shorthanded goal at 10:25 on the second, as the Flames put the game even further out of reach. After the fourth goal, the Hawks would replace Antti Raanta with Corey Crawford.

Marcus Kruger looked to have a goal in the second as he managed to wedge the puck past the Flame’s goalie that would have tied the game at 3, but the ref would waive it off and the Flames would keep the lead.

The Hawks came storming back just a few minutes later, as Ben Smith broke free to fire a shot on Reto Berra to bring the Hawks within one at 13:12 of the second. The Hawks would then score a short-handed goal of their own, as Hossa scored to knot the game back up at 4 at 17:33 of the second, the last goal that would be scored in regulation.

Calgary would pull Berra during the second intermission and replace him with Karri Ramo, but the third period would go scoreless as the teams went to overtime. For the Hawks, it was their seventh game to go to extra time in January.

The game would end quickly as the Hawks could never get the puck out of their own end, and TJ Brodie would score on a wraparound that deflected off of Nick Leddy’s stick into the net 2:26 into the extra frame.

3 Stars:

1. Mikael Backlund:​ 2 G, 5 SOG, 22:33 TOI

2. Matt Stajan: 1 G, 1 A, 18:15 TOI

3. Patrick Kane: 1 G, 19:48 TOI, -1

***

The Hawks will travel to Vancouver for their second game in a back-to back series as they continue their road trip leading up to the Olympic break. After dropping their first game in a 6-game road trip, they’ll look to rebound against the rival Canucks and move up in the standings.

The Canucks have had a similar January as the Hawks, struggling to string together consecutive wins for the majority of the month, and are 4-4-2 in their last 10 contests. Being without captain Henrik Sedin for the past 4 games hasn’t helped, but the Canucks are just clinging to a Wild Card spot in the highly competitive Western conference, and a win against a conference team is crucial.

Who’s hot: Jordan Schroeder had both of Vancouver’s goals in their last game against Edmonton.... Kane has 7 points in his last 8 games.

Injury report: The Hawks will be only without Nikolai Khabibulin (LTIR)...Vancouver will be missing Mike Santorelli (shoulder) and Andrew Alberts (concussion), both on IR, and possibly Henrik Sedin, (ribs) who’s missed the last 4 games.